Review:

Slices of Life by Richa Gupta is a collection of 12 short stories with varied themes. Each story has a unique plot that will be loved by the readers.
Stories focused on women empowerment, a murder mystery, friendships, relationships and various topics are wonderfully narrated by the author. The way the author narrated each story is commendable. One can connect to each of the stories and can feel the mystery. Yes, each storyline of each story is impressive, filled with twists.

The characters are the commonplace people we encounter in our daily life. I liked how the author developed the characters in each story. Few stories ended too quickly which made me think what would happen next while some were monotonous. There were a few stories which I really loved while some I felt could have been better without too many details.
My favourite stories are Mother and Daughter, Disclosure, and Watershed. With simple language and an engaging writing style, it’s a light read. If you like reading short stories, go for it.

Also Read – Book Review of The Rape Trial by Bidisha Ghosal

Summary:

Slices of Life’ is a collection of short stories or vignettes that provide an immersive and entertaining experience of diverse scenarios of life in motion. They are slivers of existence with the ingredients of plot and characters, sprinkled with human emotion, pervaded by the aroma of human dilemmas and served in the platter of lucid language. Sometimes searing with agony and often pervaded with beauty and yearning in the midst of travails in a contemporary or futuristic reality, they explore relationships and the human struggle to find meaning amidst chaos. They describe the consequences of our choices and characters who are at the threshold of a discovery or have reached the zenith of tolerance. The universal themes and enduring images of commonplace individuals in the swirl of life are embedded in a mixed bag of genres ranging from bathos and futuristic Sci-Fi to grim Realistic fiction and a suspenseful Whodunit.

About the Author-“After an academic and professional career, Richa Gupta has devoted herself to creative writing since 2017 and published her previous novel ‘Skeins’ in 2018. She has been a senior teacher of English in reputed schools for 19 years and an Instructional Designer for training and e-learning in the corporate sector for nine years. Through the years, she has also executed a large volume of technical editing and curriculum development assignments and conducted training workshops in technical writing. She lives in New Delhi, India.”